<p>ENT here. Go back to your ENT and have the stitches removed. Evaluation at that time when the swelling has reduced will tell you if he needs a reduction of his nasal fracture. If the appearance of his nose has changed or if there is significant displacement of the nasal bones, he will likely need a closed reduction of his nasal fracture. I do this under anesthesia on an outpatient basis. Takes about 15 minutes as long as surgery is performed within 2 weeks of the injury. This should be covered under your insurance. This is not a cosmetic procedure, but a reduction of a fractured bone. I’m not really sure why your ENT commented otherwise. Check with your own insurance provider representative to clarify and discuss your deductible for surgery.</p>
<p>Is his deviated septum related to this injury? How severe is his septal deviation. I prefer to not operate on the septum of teenage boys until the age of 18. There is good evidence that septal surgery can alter mid-facial growth and should be avoided until facial maturation is near completion (18 for boys and 16 for girls). Certainly if the septum is severely deviated from an injury, I will then go ahead and fix the septum with a septoplasty along with reduction of the nasal fracture at any age.</p>
<p>^^thank you! I might have been unintentionally misleading about ENT’s comments. S has had a minor deviated septum since childhood/adolescence. It was not caused by this injury. I didn’t ask him if it was made worse by this injury.</p>
<p>I figured if he needed surgery to fix the fracture, why not take care of the deviated septum at the same time. That’s when the ENT said that getting approval to fix a fracture is straightforward. Once you also ask for approval to fix a deviated septum (which was not caused by the accident) it would take longer. </p>
<p>Yes I plan on having S return to the same ENT on Monday to remove the stitches and do another evaluation once the swelling has gone down. S is 18 but you raise a good point about faces still maturing.</p>
<p>Once this procedure is done (reduction of a fractured bone) is the nose returned to its pre-injury shape?</p>
<p>One daughter broke her nose twice in sports. Six years later she had a “nose job.” This was no simple fix…turn out the nose collapsed in the operating room. It turned out fine. But hindsight being 20/20…we should have had it fixed earlier.</p>
<p>My son got his broken playing basketball several weeks ago. Dad and I are docs, and garnered several opinions after the acute ( same day) assessment and treatment to stop bleeding and minimize swelling. I think it’s common practice to wait a week or so for swelling to resolve, but not too much longer if you want an external repair. (not surgical). I understand these are pretty good, but never perfect. A surgical repair can wait longer. It’s been about 8 weeks and son seems to feel he is as handsome as ever. </p>
<p>So much good information here – thank you everyone. Wanted to update you: S got stitches out 1 week after ER visit. ENT recommended surgery, which is now scheduled for June 4. He had stitches and 2 black eyes for Prom, but at least he was able to go. </p>
<p>Good luck… as someone who had a septum reconstruction almost 20 years ago, I hope the ENT or plastic surgeon was forthcoming with information regarding the surgery. Mine was done under local IV sedation (which is good, anytime you don’t have to use general anesthetic). What I was not prepared for, was the choice of local anesthetic, which was applied before my IV sedation kicked in… they used cocaine. I did not understand why I wanted to jump out of my skin on that table, and why my heart was racing at what seemed like a thousand beats a minute (if they had given me the option to cancel my surgery at that point, I would have taken it). When they explained to me why they used it afterwards, it made sense; but I realized that day I would never have to worry about becoming a coke addict! After surgery I had little pain - the hardest thing is taking it easy during the recovery period because you really don’t feel all that bad.</p>
<p>Agreed.
My d bounced back much better after surgery than she did from the actual injury. We did some therapeutic shopping the day after surgery! wishing your son well!</p>
I think it depends on the severity or the condition of the nose. My younger brother and his GF last year had an accident and they both end with broken nose. His GF got few stitches and a stick was kept to hold the alignment of the septum for couple of weeks. Whereas my brother had to go through a nose job procedure, from Rhinoplasty Centre, Toronto, and it took over a month to heal but now he is all fine. I would recommend you to check the condition of kid’s nose and then get to know which will be good for him, also consider the future affects of it.
One s broke his nose skiing. They “put it back in place” at the health clinic at the slopes, but it ultimately required surgery by a plastics guy. Its still not quite straight.